Staff Picks – Utah State vs. Tennessee Tech
Wes Mangum – @Dream_Breather_
The Washington Generals have a better chance of beating the Harlem Globetrotters than Tennessee Tech does of winning this one. The Golden Eagles are 0-3 on the season so far. In the past week, they’ve lost by a combined score of 83-20 to Chattanooga and Kennesaw State. Ouch. Tennessee Tech isn’t even a good FCS team, and I’d be very surprised to see them find the endzone at all. This is going to be a tuneup for Jordan Love and the offense, and a nice chance to see some of USU’s depth in the second half. The biggest question – will the Aggies break the 65-point mark?
Utah State 62, Tennessee Tech 3
Jaden Johnson – @jadenjohnson00
Remember how badly Utah State whooped on New Mexico State last week? I sincerely believe New Mexico State would beat Tennessee Tech by about 50 points. They are quite simply not good at football. The team and the coaches are going to say all the right things like “any team can beat anyone on any given day,” and “we can’t overlook anyone,” but let’s be real here. With all due respect to the Golden Eagles, this is a name-your-score game. The Aggies will win, and win big, and we will see a whole lot of the third and fourth-string guys get a chance to have some valuable in-game experience.
Utah State 69, Tennessee Tech 6
Daedan Olander
Two weeks ago Utah State played Michigan State University, a very good football team ranked 11th in the nation at the time, and lost in a one possession game by seven points. To say that Tennessee Tech isn’t MSU is a grand understatement. Heck, Tennessee Tech isn’t even as good as New Mexico State whom USU ran over last week in a 47-point shellacking. Expect this game to be a one-sided contest from opening kickoff to the final whistle.
Utah State 54, Tennessee Tech 7
Daniel Hansen – @thegranddanny
Tennessee Tech went 1-11 last season. Tennessee Tech gave up over 500 rushing yards to someone called Kennesaw State. Tennessee Tech is starting a freshman quarterback who will be getting his first taste of action versus an FBS team. Utah State just beat a team exhibiting zero of those characteristics by 47 points. The only difficult thing about picking this game is determining when USU is going to stop trying to run up the score. Then again, even with only third-string players on the field, the Aggies may still be unstoppable versus a team as lowly as Tennessee Tech.
Utah State 74, Tennessee Tech 9
Jason Walker – @thejwalk67
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Utah State will win this game. The only question regarding this game is when will Matt Wells pull the starters. Start of the fourth quarter? Halftime? Jordan Love might be out of the game before the stragglers have finished trickling in. Tennessee Tech is a bad college football team and Utah State is at their worst a competent one. The gap between them is enormous. Expect a lot of running the ball from Utah State as they cruise to their easiest victory of the year (yes, easier than the 60-13 shellacking of NMSU).
Utah State 59, Tennessee Tech 0
Kaleb Barclay – @kalebmbarclay
I feel like we will absolutely kill Tennessee Tech, though I doubt that it will be anywhere near as bad as NMSU for two reasons. First, there is no grudge about a botched game fresh in our memory. Secondly, I feel that it is likely that after the first drive we will swap out for our second-strings to give them some playing time.
Utah State 48, Tennessee Tech 10
Thomas Sorenson — @tomcat340
It’s pretty clear that Utah State is the better team going into this game and should win easily. If the score remains competitive into the fourth quarter then something will have gone horribly wrong — but I don’t expect that to happen. There will be intrigue for this game though, in the sense that there are things the Aggies need to fine tune before an important conference game next week: the passing game needs to develop the rhythm we saw flashes of in East Lansing and the rushing defense needs to be bolstered before USU faces the onslaught of strong ground games in the Mountain West. As long as the Aggies make it out of this game with a win and no injuries, this week will be a success. But this is also a chance to build some more confidence before Air Force comes to town. A short week of practice and a desire to not show too much of the playbook will prevent the Aggies from truly capitalizing on their blowout potential, but expect Big Blue to roll on Thursday.